Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Brighton Beach Memoirs

1. Coming of Age theme- use Eugene specifically.2. The stage vs. the screen. Major differences from the perspective of actor, writer, audience.3. Write a scene using the proper screenplay writing format. I will give you the scenario.

5 comments:

The Toronto Raptors are viewed as one of the worst teams in the NBA. However, despite their poor record, the raptors are in a position that a great majority of teams wish they were in.

The raptors have a large amount of cap space at the moment (approximately 16 million.) 3-4 Million of this will be spent on last years 5th overall pick Jonas Valancunies (JV.) The raptors have also set themselves up with a trade exception, meaning they are able to take on a larger contract than they ship out as long as they remain under the salary cap.

This puts them in a perfect position to relieve another team from a bad contract, allowing them to gain more talent. For example Emeka Okafor who plays for New Orleans Hornets is being paid 12.6million for 3 years is clearly an over payment meaning New Orleans is wasting away their money on this player and keeping them from signing new players who can contribute more to their team.

The Hornets would be willing to give away the 10th overall pick in this years draft for another team like the raptors to take on his contract. This could be an idea for the raptors but only if there were other deals being made first.

Also my preference would be to add Trevor Ariza who the Hornets are also offering the 10th overall pick in this year’s extremely deep draft. I would prefer Trevor for 2 reasons, one being he is younger, a better defensive player and is a knock down 3 point shooter. These 3 things are the things that the raptors need most. Secondly Ariza is only owed 6.8 million for 3 years instead of 12.8, giving us much more cap flexibility.

Either of these trades can be made which would help the raptors in future trades but I will explain more later.

The raptors have been lacking a go-to guy in the clutch as well as a dynamic scorer. Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies would be a perfect fit. He is a great fit in Memphis, a very good team, but the problem is that they are a good team and will not be able to get themselves over the hump because they have no cap flexibility.

The raptors could provide them with relief in exchange for an all-star calibre player. If they were willing to give up Jose Calderon, the 8th overall pick and also promising young talent Ed Davis (or something similar depending on each situation.)

Now, the raptors have a core of young talent, it’s the fact that they do not blend at the moment that is the problem. To turn them into a championship team these are the steps they need to take.

One, get a starting small forward whose game meshes with Demar Derozans and also head coach Dwayne Casey. What is needed is a scoring small forward that doesn’t necessarily have to be the best defender (although that is obviously preferred.) He needs to be able to shoot and stretch the defence so that Demar will have driving lanes to the basket, which will allow him to be a better scorer/player, which will benefit the team.

I believe there are 3 ideal fits here all in different directions. One is drafting Harrison Barnes from UNC who has the nicest jump shot in the entire draft and was going to be the #1 pick if he came out of collage last year. His stock has dropped but his game has only improved.

The next two options are either Memphis’s Rudy Gay who is one of the best scoring small forwards in the league or Philadelphia’s Andre Igodala who is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. For both of these players we would give up our #8 pick in this deep draft filled with stars as well as Ed Davis our promising young power forward not to mention this would basically ruin our cap flexibility because that is the reason both of these teams would trade these players is to have that flexibility (as both players are owed approximately 13 million per season.

I believe the best solution here is to draft Harrison Barnes and although he will be a good player in his first season or two, in the third and fourth is where he will become a star or if we are lucky, a superstar (in my humble opinion.)

The next thing we are lacking is an all star calibre point guard, and this is no shot at Jose Calderon who has done a beyond admirable job, but he will not cut it if we hope to be championship contenders in the near future, it does not fit this teams mould. The good news is he has lots of potential trade value. I would personally like to see the Canadian boy Steve Nash come back home as he is a free agent this summer, but this will only happen if Raptors have made moves putting them into contention as he is ending his career with no current championships to his name.

If Steve was to come this would make Jose expendable where we would have a number of possibilities with him, my preferred being we trade him, but I have to assume that the raptors will not be so lucky as to have Steve’s services.

So I have a backup plan because we need a backup point guard we send our PF Amir Johnson who will not be missed but is a solid player to Houston for all-star TALENT Kyle Lowry who has bumped heads with his coached and reached the end of his playing days in Houston which I couldn’t be happier about.

To do this trade we would have to include our 8th pick meaning we couldn’t use it on Harrison Barnes, however we would get Houston’s 14th and 16th pick where we can get good role players or trade for value.

Now that we don’t have a small forward we would have to go to our backup plan of Rudy gay and include one if not both of Houston’s picks in the deal shown here (I cannot add the picks in this which is that the wins are so miscued for the other teams.) Since we would have such a logjam at SF as I believe James Johnson who is currently on our roster for cheap is a perfect backup to Rudy Gay we will get rid of Linas Klezia for sharp shooter Dorell Wright from Golden State, Since Johnson, and Wright can both play shooting guard, small forward and power forward they will both be able to get the minutes they deserve and co-exist. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7uwgzjk

Andrea Bargnani is a star level talent but he doesn’t blend with this teams makeup and will trade him and get significant value in return. My idea is to trade him to, Portland for the 6th overall pick and also for Wes Mathews (and Luke Babbitt to make the cap workout.) This would give the raptors an excellent SG off the bench who is a proven 6th man that is needed on every championship team. With the 6th overall pick we would draft Andre Drummond who has the most potential in the entire draft but his work ethic is questioned. I do not believe this will be a problem from watching his interviews as well as the faith I have in Raptors coaching staff. He could be a potential all-star if he is willing to put the work in without a doubt.

Please note two things, one that Demar Derozan, James Johnson, Dorell Wright can play SG, SF or PF and also that Drummond is more a Center but all 4 of the centers and power forwards can play either position. The problem with this trade is that we would have an extremely young frontcourt but in years to come it will be an absolute force.

Now there is the possibility that Portland would not do that deal because Andrea is to similar to their all-star Lamarcus Aldridge. My plan 1a is to ship Andrea to Charlotte for Tyrus Thomas (useful athletic backup PF, and the 2nd overall pick in the draft.)This trade works because the raptors will be able to get the most out of Tyrus Thomas and his defensive capabilities and the raptors will receive the 2nd pick which has many options but the best one being to draft Bradley Beal from Florida who can shoot the lights out. He can play the 2 and the 3 and is a superstar level talent already. Cant miss prospect.

The problem with this trade is you will need to expect Ed Davis to really become a elite level player if you do this and I’m unsure if he is able or unable to do this. Also it creates a jam at the SG and SF positions. Back to the trading board.

Trading For Paul Millsap from Utah will solve both of these problems. He is hard nose rebounder and great screen and role player who is unable to fit in Utah because of their collection of talented big man.http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=78v5anqIn this we have to assume Raptors have Wes Mathews and I checked that the cap still will work if raptors have him.

We are still missing two important pieces, one a backup PG and two more depth at center position. The center position will be handled through the draft with our second round picks drafting Henry Sims and Canadian Robert Sacre. Both are 7 foot big men who play hard nose defense and are great character guys. Both need work before they see big floor time but I believe these will be seen as two steals in this draft. With the raptors other 2nd round pick I believe these should select Jae Crowder a SF/Pf from Marquette who will not see many minutes but is an energy player when he does and will also be a for sure steal like Kennith Farried last year.This mock draft shows we have a good chance as selecting these 3 players (we have Portland’s 41st pick as well.)http://nbadraft.net/2012mock_draft

One last thing missing is backup Pg where we will go to free agency and get ourselves Jeremy Lin the Asian sensation. This team will have a lot of character, a lot of young energy as well as some veteran leadership. This team will be in playoffs first year together but will not have high expectations, but as the young players on this team develop, it will be a absolute force in the NBA for years to come.

You really know your stuff here. And to know the drafts as well. What is cap space? I thought you would create your own blog with pics etc. Nice paragraphing but your own blog would make this better for your audience.